Voicemail
by Dolphingirl32173
Summary: Things between Damon and Elena have been strained since he snapped her brother's neck. She's avoiding him like the plague and refusing to answer his calls. Damon quickly becomes desperate to have more contact with her than just her voicemail. He'd do anything to be back in her good graces again. Damon/Elena
1. The First Voicemail

Voicemail  
DG32173

Sarah: this _started_ as an idea for something funny then changed to angsty romance in the first chapter. I wish my muse would make up it's mind.

_**DISCLAIMER**_  
I only own what I write. Everything you recognize, including the music listed, is owned by _someone else._

_**WARNINGS**_  
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE! Rated M for my sanity, not that I have any. Alters from series shortly after Damon snaps Jeremy's neck but before the trip to Duke.

_**SUMMARY**_  
Things between Damon and Elena have been strained since he snapped her brother's neck. She's avoiding him like the plague and refusing to answer his calls. Damon quickly becomes desperate to have more contact with her than just her voicemail. He'd do _anything_ to be back in her good graces again. _**Damon/Elena**_

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Chapter 1  
The First Voicemail

Elena sighs, sitting on her bed. She could _really_ use someone to make her laugh right now. But the only one who's been able to do that since her parents died is Damon. And she's still pissed at him for snapping Jeremy's neck. Sure, Jeremy had been wearing the Gilbert ring and had come back. But what if he _hadn't_ been wearing that ring? He'd be _dead_ and nothing in this world could have brought him back! She'd _never_ ask Bonnie to meddle with necromancy, not even to bring her own brother back to life. She may have broke Damon's heart but he retaliated by killing her brother. That was _not_ fair.

Suddenly, the lyrics to _"Breathe No More"_ by Evanescence comes from her purse. She sighs dispiritedly. She had assigned that ringtone to Damon's number the night he snapped Jeremy's neck. She closes her eyes in grief as she ignores her phone. When the song ends, her voicemail picks up. She had set her phone to play voicemails as they are recorded.

"_Hi, it's Elena. If you're hearing this, I'm busy right now and can't answer the phone. So leave me a message and I'll be sure to get back to you,"_ her recording says followed by a 'beep'.

"_Look, Elena, I know you don't want to hear from me,"_ Damon's voice says._ "I get that. And I get why. I was drunk, as hard as that is to believe, and I didn't stop to think, which you know I _never_ stop to think, so the only new thing about it was that I was drunk. I was more than drunk. I was wasted. I _am_ sorry about what I did to your brother. I know you. I know you're listening to this little recording. I wish you'd pick up and say _something!_ Tell me go to hell. Rant, scream, cry. It's getting rather depressing to only hear your voice when your voicemail picks up. I'm betting you changed your ringtone for me. Let me guess, 'Breathe No More' by Evanescence? C'mon, pick up and tell me I'm right. I _know_ I'm right. I _know_ you. Elena, _please,_ just talk to –"_ and he's cut off by the 'beep' that signals he's run out of time.

Elena draws her knees up to her chest, wraps her arms around her legs, leans her forehead on her knees, and cries.

Boarding house

"Me," Damon sighs, hanging up his phone and taking a sip of his bourbon. It's been two full days, precisely forty-eight hours, since he fled Elena's room after snapping Jeremy's neck. He's been only had a single drink a day since. Elena's cry of grief still rings in his ears, sounding over and over. He has _never_ heard her sound so lost and alone as she had when they both thought the kid had been _really_ dead. His only comfort in this situation, the only thing that's keeping him from ripping of his ring and going to greet the sun without it, is that the kid had been wearing one of the Gilbert rings.

He closes his eyes. He had been all set to greet the following sunrise without his ring. The only reason he _didn't_ was because Stefan had informed him that Jeremy had been wearing the Gilbert ring. And that one fact had given him the tiniest sliver of hope that _maybe_ he could work things out with Elena. But _first_ she has to start speaking to him again. She's been avoiding him like the plague and ignoring his phone calls. This is the first time he had left a message on her voicemail, though. Damon knows she's perfectly in her right to pretend he doesn't exist. He also knows that her ability to love is even _greater_ then Jesus Fucking Christ's! She'll try her damnedest to hate him for as long as possible, but she won't be able to hold out forever.

Damon lifts his glass of bourbon to his lips, letting his tears slip out in the sanctuary of his locked bedroom though he keeps his sobs firmly in check. He'll do whatever it takes to get back in her good graces. Even if he has to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness in front of the whole damn town, he'll do it if that's what it'll take to get her to talk to him again. But right now, all he can do is sip at his bourbon in his locked room while new tearstains make tracks over old.


	2. Journals Hold Our Darkest Thoughts

Voicemail  
DG32173

Sarah: yeah, chapter one was _really_ angsty. I haven't written all that much angst because I either cry my eyes out writing it or it comes out like crap and I have to redo my effort. Not to mention I have to listen to _really_ sad songs to write it. I'm listening to a lot of Evanescence writing this, particularly their song _"Missing"._ If you have any other good angsty music for me to listen to as mood music for the first part of this fanfic, drop a review with the song and artist to share it with me. If it helps me set the mood; I'll give you a shout-out. Also, review and tell me what you think. I'm in an angsty mood lately cause my mom badly pulled a muscle in her neck and was in so much pain because of it she got put in a soft neck brace she's to wear 24/7 except for showers. She's really irritable because of the pain and one of the pills she's on for the pain has irritability as a side-effect. And all that lashing out she's doing is upsetting the whole family. I'm rather depressed because I've _never_ seen my mom in so much pain and the fact that I'm bearing the brunt of her frustrations since I'm the only one who's home all the time with her doesn't help that depression the least. Hence the angst I'm writing now. So, please pray for my mom, Pat, and pray that muscle in her neck heals soon. Anyways, here's the story. More angst coming up, so be warned.

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Chapter 2  
Journals Hold Our Darkest Thoughts

_Dear Diary,_

_It's hard, pretending Damon doesn't exist. I caught sight of him in The Grill when I went there to have lunch with Bonnie and Caroline. He tried to meet my eye, but I quickly ushered the girls to a booth as far from Damon's stool at the bar as the bar allowed and sat with my back to him to avoid having to look at him. But I could __feel__ his eyes on me for the next forty-five minutes without a break. He only took his eyes off me when he left the bar with Rick. Caroline told me as soon as they left that Damon hadn't even __touched__ the drink he had ordered right before we walked in._

_Even Bonnie, as much as she hates Damon's guts, is worried about this sudden change in my relationship with him because it's leaving me miserable. I don't smile anymore, not even with Stefan. Speaking of my boyfriend… as much as he was at first thrilled that I chose to lock Damon out of my life, he is now trying just as hard to get me to just __talk__ to his brother. He says this rift is making both me __and__ Damon miserable. But I just told him that Damon deserves to be miserable because he could so easily have taken my brother from me permanently in his fit of rage. Stefan tried to tell me just __how__ miserable Damon is, but I told him that if he's only going to talk about how miserable Damon is because I won't talk to him, then he could just leave. He left to avoid another fight with me. That's all that happens between us now: fights or him talking about Damon and trying to get me to __talk__ to his brother._

_I can't handle this. I thought Stefan, at least, would understand __why__ I can't talk to Damon. If I __talk__ to Damon, he'll turn his impressive charm to the max to try to win his way back into the status of friendship with me. But his temper and his reckless tendency to act without thinking is so dangerous to the people I care about. What if it had been __Jenna__ who had come to my door that night and not Jeremy? She'd be dead! __She__ doesn't have the benefits of some enchanted peace of jewelry to protect her from death by supernatural causes!_

_I just wish I knew __why__ he felt the need to lash out like that! But I'm not going to go to him and ask. I know he loves me. I knew that even before Isobel announced it to the world. I think I've known since Georgia that he has had __very__ strong feelings for me. I'm not sure when I was __certain__ that he loved me, but I feel like I've always known __exactly__ what he's feeling and __why__ he does the things he does, or at least had a general idea. But the reasoning behind that night eludes me._

_I can't forgive him for this now. I don't know if things between us will __ever__ be the same. Sure, he's broken my trust before, stomped on our friendship more times than I care to count. But he's __never__ done something of this magnitude to me. __Why__ was he so insistent on getting me to confess that what I feel for him is more than mere friendship? What on earth __happened__ to him that caused him to break so damn badly? Only one other time have I seen him __that__ wasted, and that was when we opened the tomb and found out Katherine was never inside. So, by that logic, I can only assume that Katherine had done something that screwed over his sanity. But even if Katherine's mind games is behind that night, it still doesn't make what he did any less horrendous._

_But it's late. I guess I'm going to cry myself to sleep again tonight. I keep my window locked now, a message to the Salvatore brothers that they are no longer welcome in my room. I know that if they really __wanted__ in, a mere locked window wouldn't stop them. But at least they still have enough respect for me to respect that message._

_I guess if I'm going to purge, though, I should write about one last thing before I go to bed. I told Damon that it would __always__ be Stefan for me. But, today, I made myself into a liar again. I broke up with Stefan this morning before school. And not because of Katherine's threats against my family, either. I just …. I just can't deal being with him when every time I look at him, I'm reminded of Damon. Not to mention he's started withholding things from me and lying to my face again. I can't deal with all that, not on top of everything else that's happened._

_Elena_

Elena lifts her pen from the page and can't repress the sob that escapes her lips despite her desperate attempts to keep it inside. She closes her diary and climbs off her bed. She sets her pen on her night stand before kneeling down to lift the loose floorboard next to her bed and gently placing her journal into the cubby she had made there to hold numerous precious belongings that are too large for her other hiding spots.

She then returns the floorboard back to its place before climbing back into bed and flicking off the light. As she makes herself comfortable, she hears _"Breathe No More"_ by Evanescence play out from the direction of her desk, where she's charging her phone overnight. At the end, her recorded message fills the silence.

"_Hi, it's Elena. If you're hearing this, I'm busy right now and can't answer the phone. So leave me a message and I'll be sure to get back to you."_ It 'beeps' to signal that the voicemail starts

She hears Damon sigh. _"I know you saw me at The Grill today. You should know, I've only had one glass of alcohol each day since that night,"_ Damon says. _"I just ordered the bourbon today because it's habit by now. I didn't drink a single drop of it. And you know, you should really change that message. I've left you two voicemails in the last two days and you have _yet_ to return my calls. I bet you're laying in your bed right now, getting ready to cry yourself to sleep _again._ I heard that you broke up with Stefan this morning. What happened to 'it will always be Stefan', huh? Not even five full days since you said that to me and you go and break up with him. Turned yourself into a liar again. Look, Elena, I'm not going to give up on getting back into your good graces. I know you've been picturing all these scenarios where that night could have taken an even worse route than it had. Hell, I've probably pictured a thousand different ways it could have gone even _more_ horribly wrong. If you'll just pick up the phone, I want to explain what had been going on to drive me to get wasted in the first place. So, _please,_ pick up and –"_ The beep cuts him off again, like it has the last two times.

Rather than calling him back as she so desperately longs to, Elena closes her eyes, draws her knees to her chest, and proceeds to cry herself to sleep.

Damon's room in the boarding house

"Talk to me," Damon whispers before hanging up. He sips at his glass of bourbon in his hands, tears trailing silently down his cheeks. He sighs when he finishes his daily dose of bourbon before pushing himself out of the chair situated next to his fireplace. He goes and sets his empty glass on his nightstand before opening the single drawer in it. Only three things are in the drawer: a stake, a large white velvet jewelry box, and a black leather journal with _D.S._ emblazoned on the cover in gold. He contemplates grabbing the stake and driving it through his heart. It would hurt a whole lot less than the way Elena's silent treatment is tearing him apart. But he sighs and decides against it. Instead, he grabs the journal and shuts the drawer. This has been the ritual of the past five nights since he snapped Jeremy's neck. He picks up the gold fountain pen on top of the dresser and climbs into his massive king-sized four-poster bed. He opens the journal to the first blank page and writes down the date before beginning to write tonight's entry.

_You know, it's almost ironic, these past six nights. Stefan's always been the journal-keeper of the two of us, not me. This journal, started the __true__ first night I met Elena, is the first I've kept since I was human. Since I met Elena, I've only written in this thing occasionally. But the past five nights, it's become a nightly ritual to write in this thing. And these past five days, Stefan hasn't even __touched__ his journal. Talk about role-reversal!_

_Anyways, today I saw Elena at The Grill. She only looked at me long enough to make sure it __was__ me before ushering her girlfriends to a booth as far from me as possible and sat down with her back to me. That didn't stop me from watching her for the next forty-five minutes. I didn't even __touch__ the glass of bourbon I ordered. After forty-five long minutes of futilely hoping that she'd turn around, I let Rick talk me into leaving._

_I called her just now but I had to leave another message on her voicemail that got cut off __long__ before I was through talking. She's kept her window locked ever since I snapped her brother's neck. It was a blatant message to Stefan and I to stay out of her room. We've respected that message, though I've been __dying__ to go in and familiarize myself with her scent once more. But I haven't, not even to read her journal. I'll have a lot of catching up to do where that little book is concerned once I manage to get back in her good graces._

_Considering her voicemail keeps cutting me off, maybe I should write her a letter and have her brother pass it to her. __He's__ talking to me, at least. He did come by the night after the incident to try to stake me. But he told me that the only reason he changed his mind was because he realized that the only thing that could have caused me to get so out-of-control was if Katherine did something. He told me that while he doesn't __like__ that I took out my aggravation with Elena and Katherine out on __him__, he at least understands that I wasn't thinking clearly at the time. Then he warned me that I was on my own when it came to his sister since she's the one I traumatized the most with my stunt. He said that he'll give her two weeks to get over it on her own before __trying__ to step in on my behalf._

_But this silent treatment she's giving me is the most horrendous torture I've __ever__ undergone. I'd much rather she just stake me and get it over with. But I know she'd never be able to bring herself to do such a thing, no matter __how__ much I deserve it. Anyways, today, she made herself into a liar again. That night she told me that 'it will always be Stefan'. Imagine my surprise when 'always' turned out to be less than five days longer. She broke up with him this morning. Knowing her, just looking at him would remind her of me. Not to mention the fact that I __know__ he's holding back information and lying to her face again. I'd __tell__ her what's up with that if she'd only __talk__ to me._

_Maybe I __should__ write that letter to her, explaining everything. Actually, I will. But that'll have to be tomorrow. Then I'd have to convince Jeremy to pass it to her for me. The two weeks he said he'd give her to be mad at me before intervening on my behalf is nowhere __near__ being up. But this isn't really intervening on my behalf if I'm just getting him to pass a message. Right now, I'd rather sleep and dream of the way things __could__ be between Elena and I. Sure, vampires don't __need__ to sleep.. But the dreams I've been having are a __much__ better alternative to the hell I'm going through in the waking world, even if I'm only sleeping for a handful of hours at a time._

Damon sighs and closes his journal before returning it to his nightstand's drawer and the placing the pen back on top of the nightstand. Then he flicks off the lamp and scoots down to lay down on his bed. He closes his eyes and forces himself to fall asleep by forcibly relaxing every muscle in his body.


	3. The Letter He Writes Her

Voicemail  
DG32173

Sarah: this chapter is go a little differently than the last two. That's because this time, we're going to _start_ with what's going on with Damon and _end_ with Elena. I know these are very short chapters compared to my usual, but this is just a fanfic I'm working on to get rid of these angsty emotions and my depression. I mentioned last chapter _why_ I'm angsty and depressed, so don't bother asking. Anyways, I hope you enjoy. Also, things start to look up towards the end of this chapter.

_**REVIEW REPLIES**_

_rcardinals4:_ I'm glad you're enjoying this. Here's chapter three! Enjoy.

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Chapter 3  
The Letter He Writes Her

Damon sighs as he digs out a packet of elegant peach-colored stationary lined with beautiful red roses in full bloom and dark green vines. He doesn't write many letters on paper anymore. But he feels that this occasion calls for going the full distance. An email can easily be deleted without being looked at. But it's a whole other matter to blatantly disregard the effort someone puts into writing a letter on paper. He grabs his gold fountain pen from his nightstand and carries both items to his desk. He sighs again as he sits down and pulls out the first piece of stationary, determined to express himself in a way he's _certain_ Elena won't be able to ignore. _She_ knows he doesn't normally have the patience for this sort of thing. And _she_ knows just how much it costs him to express his feelings even if it's just to her.

Damon sets his pen to the paper and begins to write, numbering each piece of paper so that she'll know what order they go in. He doesn't try to stop his tears from falling on the paper, only making sure that they don't smear the words into being unrecognizable. It takes nearly an hour before he signs the final page. He straightens the stack and folds it in half so that he can tuck the whole packet into an envelope he pulls from one of the drawers in his desk. He then seals the envelope before writing the following on the front:

_Elena, please, just read this and try to understand what I was going through that night._

He sighs tucks the envelope into an inner pocket of his jacket before slipping out one of the windows in his room. He races headlong through the woods then the town to the Gilbert house. He checks for witnesses before leaping up to the little wedge of roof just under Elena's window. He pulls the envelope and carefully slides it through the slit between the window and the sill under it so that it lands on the window seat. He sends up a silent prayer that she'll find _and_ read it when she gets back from school. Then he swiftly makes his way back to the boarding house, tears coming damnably close to the surface. If she calls him tonight, then he'll know she'll have gotten it. But if she doesn't call by eight, he'll call her and leave another voicemail if he has to.

Elena's room at eight on the dot

Elena sighs as she slumps down on her bed. The song _"Breathe No More"_ rings out from the direction of her dresser. She ignores it and lets voicemail pick up.

"_Hi, it's Elena. If you're hearing this, I'm busy right now and can't answer the phone. So leave me a message and I'll be sure to get back to you."_ It then 'beeps' to tell Damon to leave a message.

"_First, what did I tell you last night about changing that message? But that's not why I called tonight. I came by your house today."_ Elena's hands clench into fists at that. _"I didn't go in. I didn't even knock on the door or ring the bell. I know better than that. But if you'll look at the seat under your window, you'll see I slipped something in through the crack."_ Elena frowns and turns her head to see a white envelope resting on her window seat. She frowns and gets up to go pick it up. How could she have missed seeing this when she walked in her room? _"Anyways, you can shred it or burn it or do whatever if you don't want to read it. But I'm _begging_ you to read it."_ And she can hear the pleading in his voice. _"In it, I told you exactly what had been going on with me that night and why things had such a chance to go so horribly wrong. If you do read it and still want nothing to do with me, I'll be at a council meeting that starts around three tomorrow afternoon and is scheduled to last about three hours. Then I plan on hanging out with Rick for another hour unless he makes plans with Jenna. Just return the letter to my room with the seal broken to show me you still don't want anything to do with me. Set it on my nightstand. Well, I'm going to be turning my phone off after this because I need to restock my supply of blood bags. I should be back around eleven and I'll turn it back on. Just … please read it and know that I do love you, Elena. But I'll respect whatever decision you make after this."_

This time Damon hangs up before voicemail cuts him off. Elena picks up the letter he had written her, tears streaming down her cheek. He had sounded so damn lost this time. She takes the letter back to her bed to read. She reads what he had written on the front of the envelope before turning it over to break the seal and open it. She takes a shaky breath and pulls out the packet of stationary covered with his elegant handwriting. She unfolds the packet and begins reading, noting that he had numbered each page as he wrote the letter.

_Elena,_

_You know I'm not the kind of guy who goes writing love letters or letters of apology or anything emotional like that. You know I prefer keeping my emotions to myself. Well, look where that got us. I had held in a lot of inner turmoil and when it boiled over, I snapped and broke your brother's neck. I actually thanked a God I don't believe in that he was wearing that ring. If he hadn't been, I would have met the next sunrise without mine because the pain of burning up in the sun would have been __nothing__ compared to losing you forever. As it is, even now I'm tempted to go out in the sun without my ring because it would be a whole lot less painful than you pretending I don't exist. I know you listen to my voicemails. I don't know how often you replay them, but I do know that you listen to them._

_Anyways, I'm writing this because I feel that you should know what had been going on with me that led to the events of that night. I promise you I have only had __one__ glass of alcohol each day since that night. I'm terrified of overindulging in my remorse and pulling off another stupid stunt. I assure you, sobriety isn't very becoming in vampires. But I'd rather be stone cold sober than wasted. So as much as the bourbon tempts me, I restrict myself to __one__ glass each evening after I call you. But even Liz has noticed that something's been 'off' about me since that night. I don't bother telling her that I did something reckless and stupid that might have cost me my best friend. She doesn't need to know that._

_But I digress. I started this letter to tell you the series of events that led __up__ to that horrendous moment. So I'll tell you. The night before, Katherine had come over to the boarding house in search of a roll in the hay with yours truly. I just wanted to know if she __ever__ felt something for me. "It was always Stefan." Those are her exact words._

The piece of stationary falls to Elena's lap as her hands fly to her mouth to muffle the sob that rips free from her chest. No _wonder_ he had reacted so horribly to her words! She had said pretty much the same damn thing Katherine told him! Rejection from the vampiress he once loved on top of rejection from the human he loves now must have been like pouring salt on the wounds of his heart! Especially since both she and Katherine share the same face and their voices are _so_ similar! Tears streaming down her cheeks, Elena picks up the stationary with shaking hands.

_You probably realized just from those two sentences everything that went after that. But I'll tell you anyways. I fixed myself a drink, which turned into two, then four. Before I realized what was going on, I had drunk the next twenty-four hours away and was somehow in your room. I had this desperate __need__ to get you to confess those feelings you and I both know you harbor for me and have harbored for me for months, maybe even since Georgia. But then you went and said it will always be Stefan. Talk about salt on the wounds of my heart. A haze of fury, pain, and alcohol overrode my senses and the next thing I knew, I heard Jeremy's neck snap and my hands were on his head. I froze for all of a second as your cry of grief became imprinted on my brain and locked in my ears before fleeing as fast as I could back to my room here in the boarding house. I have never moved so fast in my life, and that's saying something._

_If Stefan hadn't told me about that ring, I would most certainly have greeted sunrise without mine. Stefan also told me that he was only telling me that because he knows me well enough to know that I would try something stupid if he didn't. He tried to get me to talk but, __hell__, he's my __little__ brother. I don't have to tell him a damn thing I don't want to. But I __do__ owe you an explanation. So there it is. Now you know._

_And since I can never get enough of tattling on my brother, I suppose I should tell you what he's been up to the past few days. He's been trying to 'negotiate' with Katherine to get her to leave you, your family, your friends, and this town alone. I'm going to save telling you __how__ he's pulling off those so-called 'negotiations' off for when I do get the chance to __talk__ to you in person, should it ever come. Just know that if you come over tonight to talk to me, you're going to get an eye-opener. I sure have been getting one._

_I'll wait for your call until eight tonight. Then I'll call and let you know about this letter in case you haven't found it by then. After that, I plan on going a few towns over to rob a blood bank. My supply is getting sapped by two vampires now: Vampire Barbie and I. I still don't understand why you won't let me kill her. But I won't. Not even if she proceeds to drink her way through most of __my__ supply of blood bags, which she's been doing. Young vampires need to feed so damn often, it's annoying. Anyways, I should be back about eleven. My phone will be off while I'm gone, but you could leave a message. If you want to talk face-to-face and don't care about finding out what Stefan and Katherine are doing, feel free to wait in my room. She's already given her blood oath that she won't do a thing to you or those you care for now that you're not with him anymore. That's a powerful oath __exclusive__ to vampires. I'll explain it next time you let me talk to __you__ rather than a recording._

_Love,_

_Damon_

Elena sighs as she puts the sheets of stationary back in order and folds them again before stuffing them back in the envelope. She sets the envelope on her nightstand before wrapping her arms around her waist and bursting into tears. She's crying for all the pain she had put Damon through, unintentionally that night and intentionally since then. Crying for the tear stains he had left on those sheets of stationary. Crying for how selfish she has been with him. And crying because she now realizes she had chosen the wrong brother the first time around.

Damon didn't come out and _say_ what Stefan is up to with Katherine, but Elena is good at reading around what words Damon does let slip to see the heart of the matter. Stefan's been sleeping with Katherine. That's the only thing that could possibly be going on that Damon wouldn't come right out and say in a letter.

Elena takes a shaky breath as the last of her tears dry on her cheeks. She looks down only to see she had picked up Teddy, the teddy bear Damon is so fond of holding in her room. "What do you suggest, Teddy?" she asks the old toy forlornly. "Is it still possible to bridge the gap between me and Damon?" Damon's scent wafts up to her nose off of the stuffed bear as if in answer. "You're right. So long as neither of us are _dead,_ there's _always_ a chance to get our closeness back. Thanks Teddy." She gently sets Teddy back against her pillows before looking at the clock. It's ten-fifteen. If she hurries, she can make it to Damon's room before he does. She grabs her jacket from her desk chair and purse from her dresser before running out of her room and racing downstairs

"Where are you going at this hour?" Jenna demands from behind her when Elena's hand lands on the doorknob to the front door.

"I have to see Damon," Elena says, pulling the door open and racing outside.

"Elena!" Jenna cries out from the open door.

Elena pays no heed to her aunt as she climbs into her car and shuts the door. She knows she's going to get in _big_ trouble for this but she doesn't care as she fastens her belt and fumbles the key into the ignition. She starts the engine and quickly pulls out of the drive before making a beeline for Damon's place. That thought catches her attention. When did she start thinking of the boarding house as 'Damon's place'? But that doesn't matter right now. All that matters is getting to Damon's room before he does.


End file.
